Death of Hptm. Joachim Kirschner IV./JG 27

[Peter Spoden]

Gentlemen,

I think it is worthwhile to research more about the death of this brave flyer.

In the book from Paul Carell "Die Gefangenen" ISBN 3-548-33208-0, Ullstein Verlag 1996, DM 19,90 I found on page 247:

"Die Jugoslawen hatten dem Eichlaubträger die Kehle durchgeschnitten und die Augen ausgestochen. Auf der Leiche drapiert lag das Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub, berichtete Fridolin Erwin Köbel, ein Kamerad von Joachim Kirschner."

Peter Spoden

[Pilot]

Forget to give direct answer... in the autumn 1992 I have search for some documents in the Military Archive in Belgrade and in the section for German documents I have found few documents where the Kirschner was mentioned. But there was no document of his death. Also I have view some of the public released archive documents from 27. division NOVJ and there I did not see any data about the Kirschner. Unfortunately I did not finish review of Grauner reports for south east, where in day by day was reported situation in Yugoslavia. I stoped in summer 1943.

For sure there have to make some deep serch in the documents NOVJ for finding of some valuable info. Only document which mentioned Kirschner death is released in Berlin and this was noted in previous post.

That's why all data coming from personal testimony. War in Yugoslavia was cruel and extreme. In Yugoslavia Germans have a rule to kill one hundred of Yugoslav's in reward for one killed German and for one wounded they shoot 50. And they realy did this. And no matter of this circumstances there was no any info that there was plan to kill Kirschner. He was kill in panic. German also killed in panic a lot of prisoner. And burn a lot of documents.

[Boris Ciglic]

Originally Posted by Peter Spoden

Gentlemen,

I think it is worthwhile to research more about the death of this brave flyer.

In the book from Paul Carell "Die Gefangenen" ISBN 3-548-33208-0, Ullstein Verlag 1996, DM 19,90 I found on page 247:

"Die Jugoslawen hatten dem Eichlaubträger die Kehle durchgeschnitten und die Augen ausgestochen. Auf der Leiche drapiert lag das Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub, berichtete Fridolin Erwin Köbel, ein Kamerad von Joachim Kirschner."

Peter Spoden

There were numerous other cases when captured German and Italian soldiers were murdered in most disguisting and brutal manner, and their bodies mutilated, but this was not the case with Kirschner. I have explained it all in my initial post.

[researcher111]

Pilot , I came across some documents ( not related to my area) that there were some
negations in progress between Germans and NOVJ before Kirschner was executed .
Though something must have seriously gone wrong because he was executed in
the last moment . Do you know about his burial and if there was any trial prior
execution ?

Attached a photo which I suspect was taken in 1943

[sidney]

Originally Posted by Peter Spoden

Gentlemen,

In the book from Paul Carell "Die Gefangenen" ISBN 3-548-33208-0, Ullstein Verlag 1996, DM 19,90 I found on page 247:

"Die Jugoslawen hatten dem Eichlaubträger die Kehle durchgeschnitten und die Augen ausgestochen. Auf der Leiche drapiert lag das Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub, berichtete Fridolin Erwin Köbel, ein Kamerad von Joachim Kirschner."

"Die Jugoslawen" is really meaningless. The partizan unit responsible for Hptm. Joachim Kirschner's execution was 29. Hercegovačka Divizija, or more specifically its battalion "Marko Mihić". The division was mostly manned by the Serbs, although there were some Muslims and Croats, the latter mostly from the Mostar region. Source: Danilo Komnenović, Muharem Kreso's book: 29. Hercegovačka Divizija.

South Hercegovina is extremely harsh environment, where no prisoners were taken by either side. Not in the war of 1940's and not in the war of 1990's. Although the account above might have been accurate, I doubt whether any German really saw Hptm. Kirschner's body, and survive to tell the tale, and it is hard to believe that the partizans would left such a prestigious decoration behind.

[Larry deZeng]

The Kirschner Story is one of the more interesting ones.


While taking off from Mostar-South airfield on 17 December 1943, Kirschner and three other pilots were surprised by a formation of Spitfires while attempting to gain height after wheels-up. Forced on the defensive at low altitude, the ensuing dogfight took place over the Pelješac Peninsula to the southwest of Mostar. The Germans were quickly overwhelmed and Kirschner and two other were shot down.

Kirschner baled out and was shot at from the ground while descending. As soon as he hit the ground he was taken prisoner by the Partisans. Search parties from the Luftwaffe and the [Waffen-] SS as well as two Fi 156 “Störche” looked all day long for him. It was later determined that Kirschner was killed by the partisans in a cruel way. In Kirschner the fighter group lost an outstanding flier, who within a short time achieved 27 victories, thus increasing his total to 188.

[Ring, Hans and Werner Girbig. Jagdgeschwader 27. 6th edition. Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag, 1979. pp.279-80].

Conclusion and My Opinion
Several accounts of Kirschner’s fate appear in the records of Glaise von Horstenau in Zagreb (NARA RG 242, Microcopy T-501) and the Kasche Embassy in Zagreb (NARA RG 242, Microcopy T-120) stating that he was tortured to death. One report even said the Partisans had impaled him alive. I weighed the provenance of these reports carefully when I read them many years ago (c. 1981-86) before forming an opinion, and in my judgment they are baseless hearsay. The Partisans, on the other hand, admit to capturing and interrogating him after he landed. They say nothing further on the subject in the postwar literature, but German prisoners were almost always shot after they had been questioned, since the Partisans had no place to hold them and didn’t want to be bothered feeding them. Personally, I think Kirschner hid or threw away his Ritterkreuz on landing, provided he had it with him, and the Partisans just thought he was another Luftwaffe Hauptmann and therefore of no special importance.

For anyone interested, the treatment of German prisoners, including Luftwaffe aircrew, in war-torn Yugoslavia 1941-45 can be found in the Nurnberg IMT Case VII (a.k.a. The Southeast or Hostage Case) transcript. Although this is 12,500 pages of unindexed reading plus another 30,000 pages of prosecution and defense exhibits, it covers this subject in great detail. (Yes, I have read the transcript.)

L.

[researcher111]

Larry / Sidney

That may well be the case ,and yet how do you explain on post war era A.Loehr execution when
in fact other Nazis were still at large and some who even later on managed to get unscaved
of the Nuerenberg trials ?Just out of curiosity who are the other two depicted along and where
was that shot taken ?

Alex K